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The front lines in the ongoing debate on whether violence in media such as video games and movies causes aggression in children seem intractably drawn. The debate percolates from the hallowed halls of academia to the discussion forums on gaming websites, to the halls of Congress and into the family drawing room with yet another tragic school shooting that occurred at southeast Atlanta's Price Middle School. The blame for recent shootings in Norway, Aurora and Sandy Hook were all causally linked to video games by intellectually spurious speculation by the popular media, media pundits, and the NRA. Politicians such as Senator Jay Rockefeller have called for more research on this important issue by studying the link between violence in films and video games and aggression. I questioned Senator Rockefeller about his recent press statements on this issue, and asked for his thoughts on the "causality question" raised in recent studies on media violence and aggression in children. My Q&A with Senator Rockefeller appears below.

Wayne La Pierre, head of the NRA, has consistently ignored scientific data that saliently point to the absence of any causal link between media violence and aggression, calling the Second Amendment right to bear arms a "God-given, fundamental American right." The NRA places the blame for the recent school killings squarely on video games, whose wisdom on stopping violence in schools amounts to this statement from LaPierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The NRA's stream of unconscious logic continued with the release of an iPhone shooter game on Jan. 14, after previously blaming video games for school shootings.

Wishing to draw from the most recent scientific research on the "causality question" between media violence and aggression, I recently did an in-depth interview with Christopher Ferguson, one of the expert witnesses cited in the Scholar's Amicus Brief provided to the Supreme Court in Brown v. EMA, formerly Schwartzenegger v. EMA. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down California's anti-video game law, criticizing the research used to support the law as "unpersuasive." Ferguson, in my interview, suggested the need for proactive Congressional action on mental health reform and gun control as possible constructive measures to address the issue of gun violence in our school communities.

Despite findings in recent research studies that conclusively refute the causal link between violence in video games and aggression in children, the speculation about such a causal link continues in the political sphere. Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, recently stated,

...Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it. They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians, and psychologists know better.

Q&A with Senator Rockefeller on the "causality question" in recent studies on media violence and aggression in children, and the need for further scientific research on this critical social issue. I have included selections from the Senator's Dec. 19 and Jan. 29 press releases below, quotes to which I refer in my questions:

“This week, we are all focused on protecting our children . . . we need to take a comprehensive look at all the ways we can keep our kids safe. I have long expressed concern about the impact of the violent content our kids see and interact with every day . . . Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it. They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians, and psychologists know better."

Venables: Your press statement on Dec. 19 appears to suggest there is already a link between video games and aggression, when academic studies have not demonstrated any causal connection with solid, scientific data. Do you believe current scientific studies have conclusively proven a causal link between video games and aggression in children? Your press statement on Jan. 29 speaks of addressing community violence and improving protections against gun violence. Do you view video games as an interactive media form that threatens our communities as a catalyst for gun violence?

Statement by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa):

“I understand some studies do show there is a causal link between violent content and aggressive behavior, but that proving absolute causality in this type of social science research is very difficult. Importantly, for purposes of public policy, causation is not the right or only threshold for whether we need to tackle this issue. Over my 28 years of looking closely at this in the Senate and speaking with families across West Virginia and experts around the country, I believe there is plenty of evidence that playing violent games and watching violent movies is having a negative impact on our kids and leading to aggressive behavior. Having the National Academy of Sciences, which is a pre-eminent source of scientific research and review, sort through the extensive research that already exists, and identify what still needs to be done, will give us a better handle on how to address the rising aggressive behavior among our kids. We need to look at every possible route to reduce violence in this country rather than limit our options to protect our children and communities.”

The debate will continue before and after the National Academy of Sciences issues it's report, with each side on the issue of the effect of media violence on aggression drawing it's line of final causation in the sands of the national debate. I happen to belong to the side that does not believe that interactive media and film cause aggression in children, and have, for some time now, made it my business to review the literature of existing scientific studies to holistically inform my beliefs. I would recommend this practice to Wayne LaPierre and Senator Rockefeller both. Here I'd like to include the last paragraph from the editorial comments that appear after my interview with Christopher Ferguson, because I think it bears repeating, just as violence in our school communities does not.

The nation is in a state of honorable outrage at the piles of recent killings of our school children, and we all remain united in feeling this heavy emotion. But Ferguson's thoughts on the relationship between the current research on video games and societal aggression provides a very wise cautionary tale for all of us. We should not be so quick to quickly point our moral finger at a ghost cause, heap blame on an external Doody Golem, forced to bear the terrible blame for the killing of children in our schools. Proper civic engagement demands us to consider Ferguson's counsel. To be a more reflective and better informed citizenry, we are obliged to turn our attention to the true causes of aggression and violence that is happening in our schools. And that means focusing our deliberative energies towards what we must do now -- have a national conversation about gun control. Most importantly, we should also be talking about mental health reform. To give these social issues any less credence is to demean our commitment to our own civic commitments as citizens. And in so doing, we would fail our sacred obligation as parents: to protect our children's very life, liberty and happiness in the classroom. We must all agree on one goal: to rebuild the nation's classrooms as places of sacrosanct learning for all children, not of dark halls of murder, chaos and fear. We must research, deliberate and establish a consensus on the actual cause of aggression in our schools. And the time is now. How many more school children have to die?